Candycandycandycandycandy… There was only one thought on Nutty's mind. He wanted it. He needed it. But he couldn't have it. It was worrying at first. What would he do without candy? Then it was funny, like the universe was playing some joke on him, because it was just not possible that he would have to go hours without something sweet to eat. He laughed, almost desperately, and waited for the punchline to come. With each hour that passed though, the joke became meaner and less funny. At some point the tragedy of the situation finally set in, and he cried at the cruelty of fate. Now came the final part: the slow crumbling of whatever sanity he still had left.
Giggles eyed the green squirrel who was now giving the thousand mile stare. Concerned, she turned to talk to Lammy, only to see that she was talking to the pickle that she always carried around. Shifty hadn't spoken since Petunia had died, and she realized that she kind of missed the raccoon's usual snarky comments. "When did I become the only sane one?" she muttered to herself when she heard Sniffles begin a one-sided conversation with Nutty,
Eventually Sniffles' chatter died down and their grim procession continued in silence. Every twisted turn through the frigid caverns dampened their spirits and their hope faded like the light from their remaining flashlight. Soon enough, it went out altogether, leaving the Tree Friends in near total darkness.
"Nutty was right, wasn't he, Mr. Pickles?" Lammy felt around and found a rock to sit down on. "I almost thought we would actually make it."
There was a thud and Giggles tripped over Shifty who had lain down in defeat. He didn't care anymore about what happened; all he wanted was to get back to town and apologize to his twin, even if he had to die in the process.
"You can't give up now! We're close to the end, I just know it!" However, she knew just from the slumped postures of the three silhouettes that her friends had given up. Wait, three? She counted again just to make sure. There was Shifty on the ground with his signature fedora, a fluffy looking shape on a rock that looked like Lammy, and a long-nosed figure that had to be Sniffles. Where did Nutty go?
She dashed ahead, hoping that the candy-craving squirrel hadn't managed to get himself killed. Curiously, as she went farther through the tunnel, the rocky walls became easier to see. Icicles glimmered dimly on the ceiling as she passed by. Eventually she saw Nutty curled up and trembling on a cavern floor. "Nutty! You had us all worried!" None of the others seemed to have noticed he was gone, but she didn't feel the need to tell him that. As she approached him, a weak beam of light touched her eye. "Huh?" Looking up, she followed the ray as it reflected along the ice back to the hole near the ceiling where it was coming from.
"Giggles! Why did you run off like that?" Lammy panted as she finally caught up. Her eyes widened when she saw where the chipmunk was pointing. "A way out…" she whispered in awe. There was a gasp behind her when Sniffles and Shifty caught up. "I know, it's so beautiful, right?"
It wasn't the route to freedom that Sniffles was gasping about though. Near their exit, partially embedded in an icicle, was an idol. "We have to get out of here. Now!"
Splendont looked tiredly at the sunrise. He had been scouring the mountain for what felt like hours, yet still had seen neither hide nor hair of any of the missing Tree Friends. I'm an even worse hero than Splendid if I can't even find the people I'm supposed to save. He was exhausted, dizzy, and still deaf from the noise attack earlier. Downtrodden as he was though, he continued his unrelenting march.
The mountain shook ominously behind him, making him pause. He tried to shrug it off and keep walking, but it shook again. Turning with dread, he saw a familiar blue shape trying, and failing, to fly around the mountain. Great, he's awake. He quickened his pace. Time was running out.
There was a hole in the surface in the distance. It looked like it had been naturally formed, something that could potentially lead into the mountain itself. Peering in, he gasped. Down below were five figures sprawled on the ground: a purple lamb, a blue anteater, a green raccoon, a pink chipmunk, and a green squirrel. He didn't see any signs of a small bear cub though. They still need help. I've got to think fast, he thought upon noticing Nutty's expression, which could either be described as pure agony or pure insanity. The mountain shook again. Think really fast.
"Well that didn't work," Sniffles groaned, rubbing his sore head. They had tried to stand on each other's shoulders to form a ladder and reach the hole. Unfortunately, Nutty had finally snapped and began screaming, startling everyone and causing them to sway and fall down. Shifty had smacked his head against several large icicles, sending them plummeting down, and was now bleeding profusely from a head wound. The ground shook intermittently, and Sniffles feared that their escape would be foiled by the idol in the most painful way possible.
Nutty didn't care about escape anymore. He didn't care about anything anymore besides candy, and since there was none, all he could do was scream. His gaze was drawn to the idol, which now looked like a wrapped chocolate to him, and he snatched it up and began to gnaw on it. It refused to yield between his teeth, making him snarl and toss it away in a rage. There was a thud and a red figure fell in through the hole.
Stars spun around Splendont's head as he tried to figure out what just happened. Dazed, he looked up to see the pink chipmunk looking at him with concern and saying something. He sort of gestured at his ears, but she understood the message, and wrote "Are you okay?" in the snow on the ground. He nodded and pointed questioningly at Nutty who was now shoving snow in his mouth, but she shrugged in response.
Communication became a game of charades. Sniffles gestured at the hole and flapped his arms like a chicken. Splendont didn't quite get it until the anteater made a heroic up-up-and-away pose, but he had to dash their hopes by demonstrating that he couldn't fly with crashing. Giggles mimed climbing up the wall and the flying squirrel shrugged and nodded, as if to say "why not?" Digging his paws into the rocky walls, he slowly climbed upward while Sniffles clung onto his back and the idol, hoping they weren't already doomed. The others waited calmly and patiently, thankful that a savior had arrived.
Splendont deposited Sniffles on the snow nearby and tossed down one end of the rope that the group had brought along. He waited for the others to start climbing up. And waited. And waited. The rope hung limply in his arms and he wondered if something had happened. His fears were confirmed when the anteater began tugging on his arm frantically and pointing to the hole. Passing the rope to Sniffles, the hero jumped down into the hole and into pandemonium.
Nutty had completely lost it. His candy vision had been cranked up to extreme and now everything around him resembled a beautiful, sugar frosted candy land, even the other Tree Friends. He had chased around a large pink marshmallow, taken a bite out of a green candy cane, and was now tearing off chunks of cotton candy, all while giggling deliriously.
The scene was very unnerving for Splendont, especially since he couldn't hear anything. The chipmunk cowered in a corner, the raccoon lay in a pool of blood, and the lamb was screaming silently while the maniacal squirrel on her back ripped out fistfuls of her wool and stuffed them into his mouth. He ran over and yanked Nutty away, tossing him to the side and pinning his arms behind his back. He was surprised at how strong the other squirrel was and kept getting smacked in the face by his big green tail. It didn't hurt, but it was really annoying, and he had to repeatedly spit green fur out of his mouth. This can't possibly get any worse.
The ceiling of the cavern they were in suddenly smashed inward sending rubble flying everywhere. A particularly large rock hit Splendont in the head and sent him staggering back. He looked down at the lifeless green squirrel in his arms, chest pierced by icicles, and then over at the figure standing triumphantly in the middle of the wreckage.
Splendid hummed his theme tune, a little off-key. Upon realizing that he couldn't hear it and that nobody was paying attention, he made a Handy-esque face.
It got worse. Splendont could only watch as Splendid grabbed Giggles and Shifty, unable to see Lammy, and took off unsteadily, smashing another hole as he did so. This time, the entire cave destabilized and began collapsing around them, threatening to bury them alive. Tossing aside Nutty's corpse, he ran over to the cowering lamb and carried her as he began jumping up the falling rocks. His lack of balance caused them to miss several times, but the two gradually made their way towards freedom.
They were almost out when Lammy gasped. "Mr. Pickles!" The little green pickle was lying abandoned amongst the rocks where Lammy had been hiding earlier. "Don't worry, I'll save you!" Squirming, she wriggled her way out of Splendont's grasp and dived down with the rocks. "I'm coming Mr. Pickles!"
"No, wait!" Splendont jumped up to the top and watched in horror as the rocks filled in the cave. Frantically, he began digging down and hurtling rocks into the distance.
"Splendont, stop!" Sniffles shouted. He grabbed the flying squirrel and tried to pull him back. He might as well have tried to stop an avalanche with his bare hands, but Splendont noticed and stopped digging. The anteater looked him straight in the eye and mouthed slowly, "I know it's tragic that you lost her, but at least you saved someone."
The thought did not cheer Splendont up much. There were five Tree Friends in that cave. Five. How many did I save? One. Just one. He sighed and gestured for Sniffles to climb onto his back. Once he felt that Sniffles was hanging on securely enough, he took off towards town with super speed.
Exhausted, Flaky plodded on past the first houses on the outskirts of Happy Tree Town. She stopped when she came upon a house with one wall blown out and three Tree Friends in front of it: Disco Bear with half of his afro missing, Russell without most of his pirate gear, and Mime who was carrying one of Russell's peg legs. All three had blood on them, though whose she couldn't tell, but she didn't care; she was happy to finally see another conscious person. "Help," she called out weakly. "Help."
The trio turned and gasped when they spotted her and her friends, and Mime and Disco Bear ran over. Disco Bear checked on Cuddles first. After searching for a pulse and checking to see if he was breathing, he had to turn to Flaky and give her the grim news: Cuddles was dead.
Flaky felt like crying. She had dragged Cuddles for 2 miles to save him, only to learn that he was dead anyways. Desperately, she hurried over to Mime, who was listening to Flippy's chest.
For a few dreaded seconds there was nothing. Mime slapped the army vet a few times, gently at first, then harder. He was ready to declare him dead when the bear started coughing up blood.
Flaky grabbed Mime and shook him. "W-we've got to g-get him to the h-hospital r-right away!"
"I'm afraid that there's no one at the hospital who can take care of him right now." Disco bear turned away so he wouldn't have to see Flaky burst into tears.
Splendid crashed down at the site. "Hm-hmhmhmmm…" he hummed weakly. Depositing a blood covered Giggles on the ground, he saluted and stumbled off in the direction of his home.
Russell, Mime, and Disco Bear were left unsure of what to do about the bawling Flaky, the critically injured Flippy, and the unconscious Giggles. Fortunately for them, Splendont arrived shortly afterwards.
Sniffles looked at the mess and the injured Tree Friends. He pointed at them and then in the direction of the hospital, looking at Splendont questioningly.
The hero sighed in response and picked up the bear and the chipmunk. A hero's work is never done, he thought as the group hurried towards the hospital.
Author's Note: Next chapter is the arc epilogue/transition. Read and review.
